(bright music) So, congrats on being appointed artistic director this year.

Can you kind of tell me a little bit about what and how you ended up here at Ballet arts ensemble, how long you’ve been around before becoming artistic director?

Yes.

So, when my daughter um started taking dance lessons at ballet arts, um, I think the at the time, Cathy Huling and and Judy Holland were the owners of this school, and I think they caught wind of the fact that I was a professional dancer, and so they reached out to me to ask if I would be willing to to teach.

So I taught three classes on a Wednesday, one right after the other.

I was able to work with prepoint, intermediate, and then their advanced.

many of them who I now have in the ensemble, so that’s really cool.

But that’s that’s my history with ballet arts.

I had taken class a little bit as well, just some of the adult classes and had chatted with Cathy afterwards, and she had asked if I would ever be interested in some performing opportunity.

and I said, sure, like I’m here, I would love to.

Kalamazoo is small, so I didn’t have a ton of performance opportunities at the time, having just moved here and having had my son about a year after that.

So, um, yeah, so that’s kind of how it came about.

And then there was an announcement that she was retiring.

and so I had reached back out to her and said, congratulations on your retirement, what’s the plan moving forward?

And she kind of said, well, you were my plan moving forward.

so I went through the whole process of interviews and search committee and but was pretty much hand selected by Cathy to take over for the ensemble.

That’s amazing.

It sounds like it fell into place..

It really did.

exactly.

Plan B was the plan., that’s awesome.

Can you tell me a little bit?

we were just watching you guys do some rehearsals.

Can you tell me what we were watching?

Yes.

um so this is a very special performance.

I mean, they all are, but this one is very near and dear to my heart.

So you were watching the Coronation of the Dragon Fly Queen, and this is a ballet that was choreographed in the 70s by my artistic director and the founder of my ballet school, which is Maryland Youth Ballet.

I grew up in the DC Metropolitan area.

It’s a ballet that I’ve performed twice as a child.

So the first time I think I was like 10 or 11.

I was a little beetle.

and then my senior year of high school, I was the butterfly queen.

And the fact that I can now bring it here when now I’m in this role of artistic director and see this ballet to come to life really on my own dancers has truly been like such a gift in a special um just process.

Yeah.

So once somebody gets selected to be a part of the ensemble, what does that schedule kind of look like, or even before a specific show, can you talk me through, like how intense some of your rehearsals can be?

So I feel like there’s dancers that do dance more recreationally, and I mean, that’s fine.

I mean, it it’s a great it’s great for your brain, it’s good for your body, it’s great exercise, all of those things.

You teach a lot of the discipline and rigidity and even just kind of resilience through dance.

But as far as the ensemble members, it’s kind of like they’ve taken that extra step.

They’re really committing themselves to this really being like their lifestyle in their high school years, which, I mean, that’s exactly what I did.

You’re forfeiting the opportunity to go hang out with your friends or do some of the afterschool activities because you’re here and you’re working hard and you’re fine tuning your craft and your artistry.

So they’re here for as many as, you know, seven seven hours a week just on the weekend and then they have their regular classes at the ballet school as well.

So it’s it’s a huge time commitment.

It’s it’s an investment and it’s an investment from the parents as well.

So I always say, like, thank you so much for giving this opportunity to your children.

Yeah, they’re busy.

They’re busy, they’re super busy, yeah.

So, can you kind of talk to me about, I guess, what you feel like dance or just ballet has done for your life in general?

Like, do you feel like it’s really kind of allowed you to express yourself in different ways that other people might not have understood stepping foot in a dance studio?

Oh, absolutely.

um you know, being exposed to to dance from my young age, I felt like, okay, this is what I was put on this earth to do.

This is what I was created to do.

And so to be able to express yourself through the art of dance, um you know, it’s different than just your learning lines and you’re reciting it or you’re singing and you’re making melody.

But I feel like dance is the embodiment of creativity.

It’s like you get to take dance and bundle it, let it flow through your veins and touch every fiber of your being and then express yourself from that place.

So for me, as an artist, it has been the most freeing, the most liberating, you know, if I’m feeling like I’m doing great in life, I can turn to dance.

If I’m having a hard time, I can turn to dance.

It has been the backbone and the comfort of and the the constant in my life.

And I’ve been doing it a long time.

I started when I was three.

I won’t tell you how old I am.

but I started dance when I was three and it has been like the thematic thing that has carried me throughout my life.

So what does it feel like then to like watch all of these dancers just grow and improve over time and knowing you get to do that year after year after year?

It’s I mean, it’s incredibly satisfying um and figuring out like how to kind of pull out from each of them.

And, you know, I’m still this is my second season, so I’m still getting to know some of the dancers.

Um and some of them are just more timid by nature.

So, you know, I would I would work with them differently than I would somebody that’s like, I’m gonna give it 150 percent every time I’m just gonna go for it.

There’s a wide range of personalities and just approach to the technical side of dance and the artistry side of dance.

But it has been really, really neat to just kind of try and figure out how how do I get the result that I want from this particular dancer in this particular moment and figuring out the right verbage and how to even just kind of give imagery for what I’m trying to achieve.

But it has been so satisfying.

I mean, like I said, I taught at Ballet Arts School of Dance in 2020 and 2021.

So then some of those dancers that I had who were like little, I say little peanuts, they weren’t like that little.

They weren’t like the biddy ones, but they were, you know, I was deciding whether or not to put them on point that year and now to see them in the ensemble.

It’s like, oh my gosh, you’ve grown so much in your technique and your ability and your confidence and just in your artistry.

So that’s that’s definitely a very satisfying feeling.

So with that, do you have a favorite dance memory, like whether it be a specific show or a specific number, maybe directing your first show?

I was a little bit nervous, my first time directing what I would feel.

like, okay, I know how I feel as a dancer after performance exhausted and fulfilled and like, oh, you know, I just contributed so much of the arts, I poured my heart and soul out.

um you know, and you know, if if you have a bad show, you’re like a little down on yourself if you’re a good show, you’re like, yes, like this is why I keep doing this, I love it.

But last year, after Nutcracker, it was so weird stepping on the other side of the curtain because I had to give the curtain talk.

And I think I even said to our audience members, this is a very strange, like surreal feeling to be on this side of the curtain.

I felt more nervous, I think, than being on the other side getting ready to perform.

But afterwards, it was just this huge sense of fulfillment and like, gosh, I really have contributed to the art and I have created art and I have carved an opportunity for dancers to come do what they love to do.

And it was like, ooh, I think I just caught the bug.

Like that was that was really special for me that moment.

So what does ball arts ensemble look like in its Betty condo era?

Like what what can we expect to see in the future, I guess?

What I have said repeatedly is that I’m trying to not come in like a bull in a china cabinet and I want to pay homage to the past and make way for the future legacy of dance.

So your question is, what is that future legacy of dance?

and I think, you know, this is a ballet school.

It’s a dance school, but it is a ballet based school.

and so staying true to the foundations of classical ballet is still my goal, but I think it’s a disservice not to create well-rounded dancers so that whether they choose to pursue dance professionally or at a university or recreationally, I want them to feel like well-rounded dancers that under the, you know, four or five years that they’ve spent with me, that they feel prepared for whatever career they are choosing, whatever career path they choose.

So I would say definitely lots of classical ballet, but also I want to explore some other options.

And, you know, one of the exciting things about me being in this role is because of my professional career, I have this huge vast network of professional dancers, some retired, some still dancing all over the country.

So I’m hoping that I can continue to pull in some of those friends of mine and former coworkers from other, whether they’re still dancing with professional companies or directing their own schools now or artistic director of a youth company like I’m doing, just to kind of help broaden and diversify the dance language and education for these ensemble dancers.

You know, I I I feel and and I’ve said this in my bio, I feel so incredibly honored to step into this role.

Like, I feel like for me, as as a dancer myself and having had a professional career and knowing what it’s like to make those same sacrifices day in and day out, I feel incredibly honored to be in this position where I get to personally invest my time in efforts and artistry and hopefully inspiring them.

like I said, whether they choose to have a professional career and dance or not, but that they’ll look back on this time that they’ve had under my leadership and think those were some of the best years of my life.

you know, that three or four years where I could be a sounding board to them and an encouragement to them and an inspiration to them and hope, you know, just foster their love and appreciation for dance which will hopefully carry them for the rest of their life.

That’s like truly the legacy I want to leave.

Thank you so much for watching.

There’s also more to explore with Kalamazoo lively arts on YouTube, Instagram and wgvu.org.

We’ll see you next time.

Support for Kalamazoo lively arts is provided by the Irvine S. Gilmore foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.